December 31, 2013

That robot bird up there means the sixth (known) installment of everybody's favorite arbitrary local(ish) skateboard shout-out awards are BACK, thunk up while I swill some beer and sit at my kitchen table listening to Belle & Sebastian and Russian techno. These are very important. PAST YEARS: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012.

December 18, 2013

Hindsight allows that at least one of the many Red Bull Daily Grind videos should have contained a reference to Russ's Casting (Russell's Casting?!?), skateboarding's most iconic office drama/skit. Then again, none of the dudes above are all that old. Oh well.

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board will vote to finalize the Northeast Park master plan Wednesday night, details are in the previous link. Said master plan allocates 30,000 square feet for a skatepark. Per Witt Siasoco, who has been actively attending MPRB meetings and emailing information, "This doesn't mean that we are going to get it anytime soon (there will be tons of fundraising needed), but I think it's a huge move for the MPRB."

For a detailed look at the plan that will be voted upon, there is a multi-page PDF here. The document lays out the projected spending for the more than $5 million improvement project.

While I'm torn over the necessity of a minute-plus-long trailer for a stand alone local video part, I like the concept of filmed at night in downtown St. Paul and I think the one "thumbs down" on the promo is a dick-move. Here's the Grady Moquin: Dexterity in the Dark trailer.

In fact, the "thumbs down" Youtube button is always a dick-move. Am I being smarm-ish? Scocca?

December 13, 2013

Somehow it all makes sense that in the same week I mentioned the long defunct Graffiti Skatepark in Stillwater, I came across quite a find, the often talked about but rarely seen decade old and very obscure video, Suburbopoly (like Midopoly you know, but from the far eastern suburbs). With only vague murmurs of memory about Andy Irlbeck's part (you somehow know what's going to happen when the slow-mo kicks in on his last trick), Suburbopoly is a truly bizarre word to type multiple times and as a video, it's quite possible it's on par with your own teenage skate memories: grainy and washed Hi-8, everybody doing the same ledge tricks, long winters indoors at so-so skateparks, embarrassment, and the two good dudes and the little dude that sort of rips stealing the show. Yes, that's kind of a harsh synopsis, but so is being a teenager. Tim Bennett has an all-Graffiti part at around the 9:53 mark in the video, proof positive that he was fully formed more than a decade ago. Repetitiveness aside, it's notable that Suburbopoly looks and sounds exactly like a video from that time, as in a "real" video, an accomplishment in its own right.

As seen in the frame grab from Suburbopoly, Anthony Boone has a brief section in it and also got a "co-video by" credit. He came out with Open Iris next, which, for far too long, only existed on Youtube in a version with maddeningly un-synched music. Another version seems to have gone up about a year ago, good news for all, as now we get to see Nate Compher's part (at the time both "DC Nate" and "Jr. Mint") in all it's Lynx and Iota boards and scrawny kid with sort of a bowl-cut glory. Part rips.

The video that got me going on this nostalgia hunt is Elijah Collard'sRoll One, the start of a multi-video series that stretched for years. It's a postcard from 2002 and 2003, with memories of a skatepark moving and a skateshop downtown and I-Path being a part of the uniform. The Roll videos are a genre all their own, with a calculated randomness that makes better sense in hindsight. Skating-wise, a lot of what's in the entire series is kind of summed up at around 8:20 above, when Elijah heelflips on the deck of the 3rd Lair bowl and then rolls-in, backside, to the deep end. It's that mix of random and gnarly and difficult that marked the whole series.

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Hat tip to Pete Spooner for linking to clips on Facebook and thanks to the THEENCHIRIDIAN Youtube account for all the uploads.

To follow up the previous post, word is that the imminent closure of Summit Boardshop and park is linked to the Vail Resorts Inc. purchase of Afton Alps. Vail, according to a recently jobless former Summit employee, is buying out eastern metro ski and snowboard retailers to shore up its own retail operations at Afton.

December 10, 2013

Summit Boardshop and Skatepark is closing this month or early next month, per the letter above (blacked out portions are in order to not completely blow out their closing sale). They were close to making it nearly ten years in the biz and their rep as a sort-of-skateshop was mostly bolstered by the skatepark, while the tab header on their website reads "Minneapolis Snowboarding | Minneapolis Skiing," sort of a head scratcher with regard their location in Lake Elmo, and previously, Stillwater. They also used to sell patio furniture.

Still, fewer indoor skating options, especially on the east side of the metro, is a bummer. Those with the means should probably look into buying ramps, bowls, etc., in order to avoid a total loss.

As it happens, just the other day in the skateshop a discussion arose about defunct indoor parks around here. A list off the top of the head:

Associated thoughts with the list above, in order: Didn't actually really skate when I found out about it on a KARE 11 report, never went; Undone by raves and had a rent-to-own program with helmets; Was south of the river and kept the vert scene afloat with earnest owners; Stillwater; Owner drove a Hummer with "Ride XP" vanity plates, which didn't help; Christian skatepark for which whose acronym I can find no explanation; Undone by repeated burglaries; Owned by a convicted sex offender*; Another religious type park which kept the East Lake thing alive; "It is our way of thanking you for your business and friendship, while at the same time accomplishing our goals."

The indoor skatepark for profit game is a tough one, as evidenced by the guy with the Hummer who couldn't make it happen and all the other examples listed above. It's unclear, too, exactly why Summit is closing up, but the list above offerings plenty of possible reasons. Follow ups as information comes up, below is a response to a since deleted tweet.

*Lots of news outlets around here reported on the arrest and the sexual assault charges against Wayne Lee Cummings Jr., former owner of Showcase Skatepark, but few web results came up to confirm that he was actually convicted of said charges. After a decent amount of Googling, commensurate with the fact checking apropos to a skate-blogger who went to J-school, I found this Minnesota Court of Appeals decision in which the crimes he was convicted of are discussed in detail. The descriptions of sexual assault in the previous link may be disturbing.

December 9, 2013

This is more for the record than breaking news: Jack Olson won Tampa Am yesterday with his first run in the finals--the third run overall of that last section of the contest--and it wasn't really all that close after that. He did it in a manly manner and that 180 switch crook pretty much sealed the deal as far as I'm concerned. Congrats; it's worth noting that dudes from Minnesota have won in Tampa for the past two years. Here's the winning run, below:

Elsewhere, Dan Jackson and dudes lugged a refrigerator all over downtown during fairer weather and these are their stories.

Finally, whether you've seen the video or not, Nike's Chronicles 2 will be projected on the wall at Familia HQ tonight, and in these cold-ass times sometimes a good excuse to get out of the house is all you need.